El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez at Border Wall Summit
On Tuesday and Wednesday December 2-3, 2008, Miguel and Margaret attended a Border Wall Summit in El Paso, Texas, approximately 700 hundred miles from where we live in Hidalgo County, Texas on the opposite end of the Texas-Mexico border. ?A coalition of activists opposed to DHSs construction of the border wall organized the event.?Hosts of the Summit ranged from human rights groups (Border Network for Human Rights) and political (LULAC) and environmental organizations (Sierra Club) as well as concerned citizens working (literally) in their backyards to help migrants and do something to take down the recently constructed wall.
The Summit featured talks by beltway insiders, academics and dedicated environmental activists.?A particularly poignant moment occurred when individuals showed before and after slides of the border landscapes from California to Texas. We became angered when we viewed (before) photos of lush spaces for wildlife and people to inhabit radically transformed into (after) moonscapes.?Our government pays private contractors to do this work.?We saw photos of Federal Parks turned from Emersonian spaces into concrete pathways. While viewing these photos we thought: How can our government be doing this to our public land without the consent of the people? Does most of the country really know that this fence is being constructed and at what cost? Is a fence actually making New York City safe from bombings?
Another highlight of the event included a public signing of a letter written to Obama. Below is a copy of the letter.?Above you will also find a link to a video clip of a short speech (three minutes) by County Attorney Rodriguez (a signatorie) before the signing.Mr. Rodriguez resides in El Paso and is a native of Pharr, Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Letter:
Dear President-Elect Obama:
All along the U.S.-Mexico border, our local economies thrive due to our close relationship with Mexico.? In fact, in 2007 alone, the U.S.-Mexico export and import trade totaled $347.3 billion.? Texas alone trades more with Mexico than all the European Union combined. At a time when our country faces a severe financial crisis, we believe it is irresponsible to spend billions of dollars on a wall that will not only scar our environmental landscape but also damage our relationship with communities and countries across the Americas. The $6.3 billion that the federal government plans to spend on the border wall would be better spent on developing the infrastructure of the border region. The recent appointment of Governor Janet Napolitano clearly signifies the importance of immigration reform to your administration.? I sincerely hope that your plan will not include the main component of immigration reform pursued by the Bush administration and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff the border wall.
Already, in churches and homes from Chihuahua to Buenos Aires, these walls are called “muros de odio,” symbols of a new hatred for which America is now known. For centuries, America has served as a symbol of freedom and democracy throughout the world. How long will it take for our great nation to repair the ill will that these walls have already engendered around the world? Border walls are currently under construction in all four southern border states, and hundreds more miles of walls called for by the Secure Fence Act are in the planning stages. In April 2008, for the fifth time, Secretary Chertoff used the power granted to him by the Real ID Act to waive laws along the border so that walls and roads could be built without regard to public health and safety or environmental protection. Already, erosion has begun to degrade the Tijuana River Estuary, a direct result of the canyon that DHS has filled in above it. The border wall between Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, caused severe flooding, which threatened life and damaged property. In Texas, condemnation proceedings have been initiated against border municipalities and landowners, in spite of the fact that the Consolidated Fiscal 2008 Appropriations Act obliges homeland security officials to consult with the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, states, local governments, Indian tribes, and property owners in communities affected by the wall. During an October 2006 visit to The University of Texas Permian Basin, the former Soviet President and Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev commented on the importance of innovative ideas to control the flow of immigration and argued against the building of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. In a reference to President Reagan’s 1987 visit to the Berlin Wall, when Reagan told Mr. Gorbachev, “this wall should be torn down,” Mr. Gorbachev said, “I don’t think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution. Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with.”
For our country to prosper, we must lead the way in the safe, fast and secure movement of people and products in a post-9/11 world. To achieve success, our borders need adequate staffing, state-of-the-art technology, modern infrastructure and effective enforcement. As Governor Napolitano aptly stated in a 2007 address to the National Press Club:
I also have refused to agree that a wall by itself is an answer. As I often say, You show me a 50-foot wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder. I also refuse to concede that illegal immigration is a political winner for those who simplistically suggest we can just seal the border. Here are some of the key elements of a real border plan: The first is the development of innovative, technology-driven border control between the ports of entry. Boots on the ground definitely help, but we can shore up our border gaps with ground-based sensors, radar, and unmanned aerial vehicles for wide-area intrusive-detection. Any combination of the above will work far better than any 10 or 20 or 50 miles of wall. The Department of Homeland Security is now installing this kind of technology. They need increased funding to sustain their efforts.
We ask you to stop building muros de odio on our southern border?let us stop building these ill-conceived walls founded in current notions of racism. As the next President of the United States, we hope your administration will lead the U.S. to once again be the beacon of hope to the world.
Let us make the case for safer, faster ports to move people and products in a 21st Century world. And most of all, let us work together, strengthened by the proud legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy to reach out to our neighbors, family and friends in all the Americas to build lasting bridges of friendship, safety and prosperity?not walls of hatred and division.
With hope,